Cat-Nipped

Week after week itâ€™s the same thing. I go to church Sunday morning and the first thing people ask me is, â€œwhat did you think of the game?â€

We won. Iâ€™m obviously happy about that. We looked better overall, but there are still some serious issues lurking underneath this veneer of victory.

I will grant hearty congratulations to Deon Butler for setting a new record for receiving yards in a single game with 216 on 11 catches. The passing game appears to have gotten better, but appearances can be deceptive.

Morelli pump faked several times in the first series. It was obvious and looked staged. He never went back to that the rest of the game. I personally felt he was purposefully trying not to stare down a receiver and the pump fake was a way of forcing him to look somewhere else first. But as the game went on, he fell into his old routine of staring down receivers. His only INT of the game led to Northwesternâ€™s best starting position and their only score.

We still have a penchant for making critical mistakes. Hunt fumbled in the red zone on the gameâ€™s initial drive. It was a harbinger of bad things to happen inside the opponentâ€™s twenty-yard line.

More mistakes: A late hit out of bounds after the Morelli INT helped the Catâ€™s move the ball in for a score.

Jay Alford tumbled into the end zone, into the hearts of the fans that cheered him repeatedly on the replays, and fell right smack dab into Joeâ€™s doghouse. I donâ€™t think he played again in the game. His antic cost us 15 yards and gave the Catâ€™s a first down when they would have had to punt.

In a screwy quirk of the replay system, the Lions were penalized on a play that shouldnâ€™t even have occurred. Say what? After picking up and returning the fumble for a TD, Alford was flagged for his showboating dive into the end zone. The replay clearly showed that Brewerâ€™s arm was going forward, and so the play was not a fumble, but an incomplete pass. No whistle sounded, and the return, TD and penalty transpired. The play vanishes after the replay, but apparently the penalty does not. It gave the Wildcatâ€™s a first down, but it didnâ€™t affect the game or even the score, as the defense held on the series despite the shenanigans.

I just shake my head. I think the unsportsmanlike penalty is a crock of bull to begin with. Sometimes you see actions that should have been called but arenâ€™t. And who really cares if a guy jumps into the end zone? Or does a dance? Does it really make the Wildcats feel worse about the play? Come onâ€”this is a manâ€™s game. Let them act like kids if they want to. Continue to flag direct taunting of another player, smack talking, and physical fouls, but let the scorer celebrate.

As for enforcing a foul on a play that should not have occurred seems at first glance to be really stupid. But the more I thought about it, the less angry I got. If it had been a personal foul for a late hit or shot to the helmet, then that should obviously be enforced. Like it or not, the unsportsmanlike call is a dead ball foul and really no different than a personal foul.

Whereâ€™s Levi? Brown didnâ€™t play in the game due to a knee sprain, but to be honest, the offensive line did well without him.

Finally! The special teams managed to play a game without any mistakes. I say no mistakes because not a lot has been said about the â€œon-sides kickâ€ in the second quarter, just up 9-0. Was it really an on-sides kick, or did Kelly whiff at that one?

Joe Hughes got some playing time on kick-offs. All were short, but most were high enough to allow the coverage to get downfield.

The field goal kicking was finally perfect. Of course, Kelly got an awful lot of practice at kicking field goalsâ€”not just in practice unfortunately.

Which brings us to a critical, code red issue . . . the red zone, or as we know it at Penn Stateâ€”the dread zone. Some pundits have dubbed it the dead zone, since so many fine drives suddenly go R.I.P. I prefer the term dread zoneâ€”itâ€™s not a matter of just drive killing bad luck. Itâ€™s a complete aura of frustration and anxiety. You can see it in the players, and you can even feel it in the stadium. The tension is palpable. As soon as we smell the twenty-yard line, our sphincters contract so tight you could crack a buckeye between our butt cheeks.

This is a combination of the following: play calling, execution, and mental focus. Penn State obviously had a lot of chances to score TDs. They obviously can move the ball. But when the field gets short, so does ingenuity, patience and execution. Against an opponent like this, that was not a problem (but forget not that the game was 9-7 at one point and only 16-7 at the half.) Against a top ten team (and I think we have one more left to play,) such struggles to score will be disastrous.

The defense played another great game, and not for the INT and late hit penalty, might have held to 3 or even shut-out the Cats.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Except for turn-overs, the Lions led just about every category. The won time of possession 32:47 to 27:13. They gained 25 first downs to Northwesternâ€™s 12. The Cats had only 5 first downs in the first half, and two of those were on the final drive as time was expiring.

The Lions had 528 total offensive yards in the game to only 238 for the Cats. NW had only 81 net yards rushing, and PSU amassed 233 with Tony Hunt accounting for 137. Sutton was held to just 40 yards in the game.

NW was just 1 for 13 on third down conversions. We were 9 of 17 and it seemed like all 8 that we didnâ€™t convert were in the red zone.

We logged one INT by Sean Lee (is he a player or what!) and we converted that for 3 points.

INTANGIBLES:

The crowd (listed at 108,837) was really into this gameâ€”more so than I expected for this opponent. We won the coin toss and took the ball first. The weather was quintessential for football. It sprinkled a few times, but otherwise was just an overcast day.

The drum major hit both flips.

The Lion danced through the decades, including a short encore of his thriller routine.

THE BIG (TEN) PICTURE:

The Buckeyes blasted the Hawkeyes 38-17.

THEM won the little brown jug from the Gophers, 28-14. Itâ€™s a rather ugly trophyâ€”kind of fitting that it finds a home in Ann Arbor.

The Spartans lost . . . to Illinois, 23-20??? Oh, boy. That radio announcer for MSU that melted down on the air last week is probably on suicide alert this week. Maybe he can share a room with T.O.

Wisconsin took care of business against the Hoosiers, 52-17.

Purdue exits the realm of the undefeated in a 35-21 loss to the Irish, who inexplicably went 3-1 against the Big Ten.

SHEDDING TEARS:

1. The Hawkeyesâ€”Pierced by the Bucksâ€”we know your pain2. Virginia Tech Chokies3. The disheartened Spartans4. Houstonâ€”lost to the â€˜Canes by one point5. South Florida Bullsâ€”a dropped two-point conversion away from OT

LOOKING AHEAD:

Assuming that the Twins donâ€™t muck things up, PSU will face the Gophers away next weekend. If the Twins have the right numbers, though, the game will be moved to Thanksgiving weekend. I have mixed emotions about this.

We really look like we need more experience for Morelli before hosting THEM on the 14th. On the other hand, history indicates that we do better against the wolverines after a week of restâ€”3 out 4 wins with a week off, NO wins without a bye.

The Gophers lost to THEM this weekend, and I donâ€™t think the score actually reflects how close the game was not. The Gophers have also lost to Purdue and California. Their only wins are over Temple and Kent State. Penn State has not won a road game yet this year. We are far from hitting on all cylinders yetâ€”so we are behind where we were at this point last season. This should be a win for Penn State and hopefully foreshadow a great game in prime time against the wolverines.